names

I heard of the movie The Godfather before knowing about what an actual godfather was, so when I heard a classmate in grade school talking about his godfather, I thought his family members were criminals.

Anon

My name is Heather Louise and when I was younger I had never heard of an older woman named Heather, however I HAD known ALOT of old woman named Louise. I thought that when you got older you had to go by your middle name and that all the old women named Louise used to be young Heathers.

Heather McKinney

I used to believe that people with the same first names were somehow related. This was particularly true with famous people.

boopy

My gradma has a sister named Bernice, who is called Bunny for short. As a child, I did not understand that Bunny could be a name. I thought it must have something to do with rabbits. Until the day I learned that Aunt Bunny had been married three times. I proudly exclaimed to her: "Now I know why you're called Bunny! You hop from man to man!"

hoping Aunt Bunny doesn't read this

i used to think the term "tom"-boy could be changed to any name you want. i still remember when i was 7, and my friend said she thinks she's a tom boy, i turned to her and said "oh..well, i'm a William-boy!"

Anon

i used to think that if you had identical twins, you would give them the same first name.

of course, any identical twins i met were the exeption to that rule..

anastacia beeverhousen

Thought Netanyahu was really Benjamin Nathan Yahoo and I thought that was just the coolest name ever.......I guess I had just heard it and had never seen it written

Anon

Watching racing on TV, I thought Mario Andretti was two people- Mario and Dretti. I was confused at how they fit both of them in that small car.

Tom

I thought Hall and Oates was Holland Oats.

Anon

I used to believe that the name Giselle was pronounced "gazelle"

Derek

when i was young, i thought all people with the same name would grow up to look the same.

kim

I thought my real name was Marmite and that I was only called Rosie to stop others getting me confused with marmite spread.
My Grandad would always say 'My Mate Marmite' to me when I was really young.
I wasn't aware that it was an advertising slogan.

rosie

I used to believe that only one person could have each name, and so I was the only Rachel in the world. Then one day we were at McDonalds and I overheard a lady calling her daughter Rachel. I was heartbroken.

Rachel

my dad's name is William Gene and my brother name is William S. So everybody called my dad Gene so you can imagine me as a child being very confused because I thought my dad's name was DAD not Gene. when people called the house and would say "Yes is Gene there"? I would say "NO"! Come to think of it my poor dad missed alot of important calls when I was small lol.

brenda

When I was little I used to think that if your name was Christian that you were somehow more religious and spiritual than everyone else. You were "special". If your name was Christian, then you were related to God and you knew things that no one else did. Why else would you be named after a religion if you weren't related to God? Christian was a pretty popular name in my area. When my sister brought home a friend named Christy, I thought it was short for Christian and that she was going to spy on me and tell God all the bad things I did.

Anon

When he was about 2, my brother was convinced that our little sisters name was "Her", because people were always sayingto him "Jack, leave her alone", or "Jack, let her sleep" and the like.

Bekka

My parents were talking about O J Simpson when I was about three and I couldn't stop laughing because I was sure his name was really Orange Juice Simpson.

Anon

When I was young people would always say,"You don't know Jack Shit!"

I would say, "No, I don't."

Who was Jack and why would I care if he shit.Was he a relative or a brother I didn't know about that they gave up for adoption. I pondered these things.

Anon

Here in the U.S, people often refer to the federal government as "Uncle Sam." I have an actual uncle named Sam, so when people would mention Uncle Sam I thought they were talking about him! He seemed to be a very popular guy to talk about.

Darren

I thought DC Mayor Marion Barry was actually a husband and wife mayoral team (Mary & Barry). I would always wonder why Mary would let Barry do all the TV appearances.

Sandy Wu